Motor starter



Dec. 6, 1932. H, L, MEEDER 1,889,995

MOTOR STARTER Filed DSG. l5, 1931 (gn/neuke@ Patented Dec. 6, 1932 MGTOE STARTER Application led December 15, 1&317. Serial No. 581,143.

invention relates to power operated starters of the type employed for varting internal combustion engines and has re erence mere particularly to an improvement in the construction described and claimed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,767,688. issued June 2li, 1930.

TWhere power operated motor starters are employed for stat-ing internal combustion engines7 the latter 'are provided with a ring connected with the crank snaft and the starter has a. pinion that is carried by a shaft located perpendicular to the plane of rotation of the ring gear and which carries a pinion that can be moved into engagement with the ring gear and rotated by means of power from an electric motor.

derived Mechanisms of the type to which this invention relates are provided with means for automatically moving the pinion into mesh with the ring gear when the motor is to be started and for automatically removing the pinion from interengaging position after the engine has started. It frequently happens that the teeth on the pinion instead of passing into the spaces between the teeth on the ring gear. strike the ends of these teeth with the result that the mechanism becomes locked. ri`his is commonly referred to asa. starter lock and is very aggravating and often times damages the teeth of the gear and of the pinion.

In the patent above identitied a starter mechanism has been shown and claimed in which the pinion is connected with the inotor by means comprising a friction clutch mechanism and therefore if the pinion engages the teeth on the ring gear, it will rotate with respect to the driving member on which it is mounted and this will limit the force anc. prevent injury to the pinion and/or to the gear.

It is the. object of this invention to produce an improved motor starter mechanism of the type described in the above identified patent.

One of the improvement consists in substituting for the friction clutch mechanism shown in the patented device, another friction mechanism of a slightly different construction that has been found to pro-duce more desirable results.

Another object of the invention is' to produce a novel construction of the pinion in which the teeth, instead of allterminating 55 in the same plane in the usual manner, are alternately short and long, so that if the pinio-n should strike the teeth of the ring `gear instead of passing between them, only ya. singie tooth willV engage with a tooth on the ring gear and this decreases the chances of locking the parts in a manner which will'be hereinafter described. v

Another object of this invention isvto produce a vsimplified means of connecting the starter spring to the driving and thedriven portions of the mechanism for the purpose of simplifying the construction of the spring and also simplifying the operation of applying the spring in place and removing it when occasion requires.

The above and other objects that may appear as this description proceeds, are attained by means of a constructiony and an arrangement of parts that will now be described in 75 detail, and for this purpose reference will be had to the accompanying drawing in which the preferred embodiment of the 1n- Vention has been illustrated, and in which:

Fig. l is a plane view of the starting mech- 80 anism, portions thereof being broken away to better disclose the construction;

Fig. 2 is a diametrical section of the mechanism shown in Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken 4on line 3 3, Fig. 2; and

Fig. l is a transverse section taken on line L -4, Fig. 2.

In the drawing reference numeral 5 represents the'drive shaft which may be an extension of the shaft of the starting motor. The motor has .not been shown, as it forms no part of this invention except insofar as it produces power for rotating the shaft. Secured to .shaft 5 is arfianged sleeve 6 having 9D a radially extending flange 7. This sleeve is held in place on the shaft by means of a key 8 which prevents both longitudinal and rotary movement with respect to the shaft. Slidably and rotatably connected with the has a radially extending flange 13 corre-- sponding to the flange 7 on sleeve 6. Sleeve 12 is hel-d in place on the driving member by means of a key 14 in the manner shown in Fig. 2. The flange 13: and also the flangeV 7 are provided with'openings 15 through which the hooked ends .16 ofy the helical spring 17 extend. The openings 15 vare large enough to permit the ends of the springs to vbe passed throughl them and after having been passed through the openings, a locking device comprising a member 18 secures them in place. This member has one endl bent in# wardly as indicated at 19 and the other end is provided with a cylindrical plug 20 lthat projects thro-ugh an opening in the flange. After the plug has been putin place, it is held against removal by a cotterpin 21. 'Rotatably mounted on the driving member 9 is apinion 22. This pinion is lprovided with gear teeth 28 and one end is provided with a number of ratchet teeth 24 that are adapted to interlock with the lugs 10 in the manner shown in Fig. 1. y

Attention is called at this point to the tact that the teeth 23 of the pinion are ofrdierent lengths. Every alternate tooth terminating in one plane perpendicular to the axis' of rotation and the other teeth which are shorter terminating in another plane parallel to the first, but spaced from it. By the simple expedient ot'` making the gear teeth on the pinionor1 different lengths, the danger of forming a lock between the pinion and the teeth of the ring gear 25 is greatly ref duced. The ends of teeth 2 3 are also bevelled as indicated by reference numeral 26. The other end of the pinion has secured to it a hollow cylindricalnieniber 27,'one end of which has an inwardly extending flange 28. YThe flange has an opening in its center of the proper size to receive the corresponding end of vthe pinion and the two members are connected by some suitable expedient. The inner surface of the cylindrical member 27 is provided with a groove 29 for the reception of the outer edge of a spring latching ring 30; Mounted on the driving member is a sleeve 31. This sleeve yhas a hexagonal portion 32 and an outwardly ei-:tending flange 33 whose diameter is slightly less than Vthe inside diameter ofthe cylindrical member27. Sleeve 3l is inserted into member 27 as shown in Fig. 2 and held in place by means of the spring 29. By referring to Fig. 3 it apparent that the cooperation of springs 34 with the hexagonal member serves to locate the latter in six posltions rotarily and coiiespending to this six lugs 10 have been provid-ed on the driving member and also six ratchet teeth 24 on the pinion. Sleeve 31 is provided with a radial opening for the reception of a pin 36 whose inner 'end is adapted to extend into the helical groove 11 in the outer surfaceV ofrdriving member, 9. After the pin 36 is in place, it is held against removal by means of a cotterpin 37, all shown in Fig. 4.

lt is apparent from the above description that the assembly comprising the pinion and the sleeve 31 can be rotated on the driving member and due to the interconnection efected by the pin 36 and the helical groove 11, the pinion will move longitudinally on the drivng member whenever it is rotated thereon unless it simultaneously turns on sleeve 31. vThe parts are soadjusted that when the pinion approaches the end of the driving member having the lugs, the ratchet teeth are in proper position to'move into the space between the lugs andthe inclination between the teeth and the lugs is preferably the saine as that of the helical groove and therefore the teeth and lugs will interconnect without difficulty whenever the pinion approaches this position. Since there are six teeth and six sides to the hexagon, the relative position of vthe teeth and lugs will be the saine, regardless of the relative position of the hexagonal projection and the pinion.

Let us now assume that the parts have been assembled in the manner above described and that shaft 5 is rotated bynieans of the start ing motor. This rotationtakes place in the direction ofthe arrow in Fig. 1 and if' the.

pinion.V is in the posit-ion shown in Fig. 2, the inertia of the pinion and attached part-s will cause the same to lag and produce a relative rotation between the pinion and the driving CIO member which will nieve the pnion towards the right and finally bring it into operative engagement with the teeth on the ring gear 25. As soon as the pinion reaches the position shown in Fig. 1, the'lugs 1() will engage the ratchet teeth and any further rotation of the driving memberv 9 will cause the 'pinion to' rotate and to turn the ring gear.

If, Jfor any reason, the teeth on the'rpinion should strike the teeth on the ring gear, the pinion will be permitted Vto rotate without moving longitudinally on the driving member 9, due to the resilient connection between the pinion and tie sleeve 31 afforded by the springs Sil. Owing to the fact that. the

- pinion can rotate relative to the driving member 9, the wedging action tl at would otherwise be produced by the action of the sides of the groove 11 against the pin 3G will be limited to such an extent that no breakage will occur.

In order to decrease the liability of a lock between the pinion and the ring gear, the teeth of the pinion have been made of different lengths as shown in Fig. 1 and have been inclined. The employment of long and short teeth assures that even if one of the teeth of the pinion should engage a ring gear tooth, such engagement will take place only between one tooth of each, and therefore the danger of locking the parts is greatly reduced.

At this point I wish to call attention to the improved connection between the drive shaft and the driving member` 9. It has always been customary to employ a spring corresponding to spring 17 between the motor and the pinion for the purpose of absorbing the shocks that occur when the pinion meshes with the ring gear. Spring 17 sometimes breaks and it is therefore desirable to remove the broken portions and replace them as conveniently as possible and in order to simplify this operation the two sleeves 6 and 12 have been pro-vided with radial flanges 7 and 13, which, in turn, are provided with openings as above described. By merely removing the latchingl member 18, the spring can be easily removed and as easily replaced.

I want to call particular attention to the specific friction mechanism employed in this construction which consists of a member having a polygonal surface that is engaged by flat springs. By making this polygonal member hexagonal, it is possible to employ three springs in the manner shown in Fig. 3.

t is not necessary, however, to use ahexagonal I member as a polygon of any other number of faces can be employed, although when a polygon of a different number of sides is employed, it may be necessary to omit one or more of the springs. Another feature to which attention is called is that I employ the same number of lugs and teeth 10 and 24C respectively, as there are sides on the polygon and by this simple expedient, a proper positioning of the lugs and teeth is always eected so as to secure the smoothest and best operation.

From the above description, it will be seen that the starter mechanism that forms the subject of this invention differs in specic details from that shown and claimed in the patent above identified and it is to these differences, including the variation in the length of the teeth and the manner of securing the spring 17 in place that this invention is directed.

Having described the invention what is claimed as new is:

1. A power operated motor starter comprising, in combination, a driving member adapted to be rotated from a source of power, a sleeve carried by the driving member, means for interconnecting the sleeve and driving member, said means comprising a pin carried by one of the members and pro- `iecting into a helical groove in the other member, a pinion carried on the driving member and rotatably secured to the sleeve, means for securing the pinion to the sleeve for holding the two against relative movement in the direction of the aXis of the driving member while permitting relative rotation, the sleeve having a projection whose outer surface is polygonal, means carried by the pinion for yieldingly engaging the sides of the polygonal portion, and interengaging lugs on the pinion and on the driving member for holding them against relative rotation in one direction when the pinion is in one of its eX- treme positions with respect to the driving member.

2. A power operated motor starter comprising, in, combination, a driving member adapted to be rotated from a source of power, a sleeve carried by the driving member, means for interconnecting the sleeve and driving member, said means comprising a pin carried by one of the members and projecting into a helical groove in the other `member, a pinion carried by the driving member and rotatably secured to the sleeve,l

means for securing the pinion to the sleeve for holding the two against relative movement in the direction of the aXis of the driving member while permitting relative rotation, the sleeve having a projection whose outer surface is polygonal, means carried by the pinion for yieldingly engaging the sides of the polygonal portion of the sleeve, and

interengaging lugs on the pinion and on the,

driving member for holding them against relative rotation in one direction when the pinion is in one of its extreme positions with respect to the driving member, the number of lugs being equal to the number of sides onl the polygon.

3. A power operated motor starter comprising, in combination, a driving member adapted to be rotated from a source of power, a sleeve carried by the driving member, means for interconnecting the sleeve and driving member, said means comprising a pin carried by one of the members and projecting into a helical groove in the other member, a pinion carried by the driving member and rotatably secured to the sleeve, means for securing the pinion to the sleeve for holding the two against relative movement in the direction of the axis of the driving member while permitting relative rotation, the sleeve having a projection whose outensiuface, is'` polygonal, springs fcarried by the pinion in engagement with the surfaces of thepolygonall projection, said springs yieldingly resisting relative rrotation of the sleeve-and pinion, and interengaging lugs on the pinion andion'the driving member for holding them against relative r0- tation in one direction when the pinion is in one of its extreme positions with respect to the driving member.

4. A power operated motor starter comprising, in combination, a drivingpmembei adapted to be rotated from a source of power, a sleeve carried by the driving member, means for interconnecting the sleeve and driving member, said means comprising a pin carried by one of the members and projecting into a helical groove in the other membeiga pinion rotatably secured to the driving member, means for securing the pinion to the sleeve for holding the two against relative movement in the direction of the aXis of the drivo ing member while permitting relative rotation, the sleeve having a' polygonal pro]ectien, springs carried by the pinion in engagement with the surfaces of the polygonal pro-- jection, said springs yieldingly resisting relaterengaging lugs onthefpinion and on the driving member for holdingV them against relative rotationv in one direction when the Vpinion isin one of its eXtreme positions with respect to the driving member, the number of lugs being equal to the number of sides on the polygon.

5. A. device in accordance with claim 1V in which the polygonal progection is a heXagon Vandv in which the means for yieldingly engagfng the sides of the polygon consists of three flat springs arranged at sixty degree 4angles towards each other andveach posi- Vmeanscarried by the pinion for yieldingly engaging the sides of the noncircular portion of the sleeve, and interengaging lugs on the pinion and on the driving member for holding them against relativerotation in one direction when the pinion is in one of its extreme positions with respect to the driving member. y

rIn testimony whereof I afliX my signature.

'HERBERT L. MEEDER.

tive rotation of the sleeve and pinion and inprising, in combination, a drive shaft, a 7

flanged sleeve secured thereto, means for holding the shaft and sleeve against relative rotation, a driving member rotatably carried by the shaft, a flanged sleeve secured to the driving member at the end adjacent the first flanged sleeve, ahelical spring located between the flanges, the flanges of the sleeves having openings for the reception 'of the ends of the spring, the ends of the spring having hooks for engaging the flanges the openings being of suliicient size to permit the hooks to pass through and removable means .for holding the ends of the spring againstaccidental re- Vmoval for the openings;

7. A power operated motor starter comprsiiig, in combination, a driving member adapted Vto be rotated from a source of power, a sleeve carried by the driving member, means for interconnecting the sleeve end driving member, said means comprising 

